Japan health officials confirm bird flu outbreak at a poultry farm in the western prefecture of Okayama, Japan. Tests showed the presence of H5 subtype influenza among chickens.
The agriculture ministry said it had ordered all poultry at the farm to be killed and the site to be disinfected. Movement of people and goods within a 10 km radius of the farm was to be restricted, it added.
Further tests will be carried out to confirm whether the virus was the H5N1 strain. There have been no reported cases of human infection from the virus in Japan.
Hundreds of thousands of birds in Asia died due to a virus that has been dubbed the “bird flu.” The highly contagious illness is responsible for wiping out large numbers of poultry in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam. The particular strain of influenza which has been reported as causing the deaths is called H5N1.
Humans can contract the disease through close contact with infected birds, or with the feces of infected birds. It is not known to spread through human-to-human contact. There has been no indication that humans would get the disease through eating eggs or meat of sick birds.